Supporting Healthy Menstruation and Fertility
It was as a result of my own experience with debilitating period pain that led me to study Chinese medicine over 10 years ago. After a visit to my local GP in pain and feeling desperate, it was explained to me that it was just the way it was and that I just had to put up with it. A life on the contraceptive pill and Nurofen were apparently my only options, relayed to me with a distinct lack of compassion. I knew there had to be another way, and went on a quest to improve my health with the help of Chinese medicine.
I’m always surprised in clinic to find that a lot of women don’t really know a lot about their cycles, or what constitutes a healthy menstrual cycle. This becomes particularly apparent when they are coming in to discuss fertility issues. I find that a lot of women have put up with painful periods, pain during ovulation and intercourse, irregular cycles (short or long), PMS, short or long bleeds, thinking that this was normal or untreatable.
Some important points to note in regards to what constitutes a healthy and natural cycle include-
-The cycle length is between 28-31 days in duration.
-blood should be a deep red colour without any clotting.
-bleeding is moderate in flow and not overly light or heavy.
-it should be free from pain.
-ovulation should occur around Day 14 of your cycle.
-Fertile cervical mucus should be observed around this time, with a stretchy, thick consistency.
-Your BBT (basal body temperature) is a useful way of determining your ovulation patterns. Charting your body temperature using an app or BBT chart allows you to get to know your fertile days and can highlight any imbalances that may be occurring within your cycle. This is done by using a thermometer (either vaginally or orally) first thing each morning and recording these readings over the course of your cycle. This should be recorded at around the same time each morning, somewhere between 6-7am.
-Your BBT should lie between 36.3-36.8⁰C in the first phase on your cycle (follicular phase) and 36.8-37.1⁰ C in the second phase of your cycle (luteal phase). Ovulation has generally occurred 1-2 days prior to this temperature rise.
I usually apply a combination of acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, nutritional and lifestyle advice and tailored supplementation within each consultation. We can then start to address the underlying imbalances that may be causing these emotional and physical symptoms linked to your menstrual cycles. This may also be contributing to issues with fertility, which is often what brings women into my clinic in the first place. Conditions such as PCOS, endometriosis, uterine fibroids and PMS are becoming increasingly more common, and often the only solution provided to treat these conditions are oral contraception, anti-inflammatories or surgery. It is my mission to show my patients that there is another solution, provided with a level of compassion and care that is often lacking in western medical care.